SEO (Search Engine Optimization) myths are usually created by people who either make common sense assumptions that are completely wrong, or they are created intentionally by good/bad people because it is more fun than sticking a carrot up their nose.

The algorithm that Google uses is now so complex that some people are giving up on SEO because it is too difficult to see any meaningful results, but even though you don’t have to be as strict as you were with your on-page SEO, it is still worth putting in the effort and maintaining your off-page SEO campaign efforts too.

Myth 1: Search Engine Experience Is The Same No Matter Which Computer You Use

Google doesn’t work like that anymore.

It generates suggestions depending upon what Google knows about you. With that in mind, the people searching for your website may type in the same things and see the same results, but the suggestions they are offered will differ, which lowers the importance of the keywords you are trying to rank up for.

“Keywords do not matter as much as they used to.”

In other words, keywords do not matter as much as they used to. You should still have them, they’re not deprecated or anything, but they shouldn’t be your full focus.

Meta information matters for a whole bunch of reasons, but that is not what is important. What is important is the fact that websites that do not have tagged keywords, meta titles and meta descriptions will typically rank lower than their competitors over the long term.

There are plenty of lingering SEO guidelines that may still matter, such as if you should have your focus keyword in your first paragraph, in a H-tag subheader, in your title, and in your meta description.

Maybe you should have a focus keyword in all of them and more, but you won’t lose your position on Google if you forget them from time to time.

Myth 3: You Can Hide Stuff From Google In Images

You cannot hide stuff in images anymore.

People used to hide things such as “Click my affiliate adverts” or “Link to my page” because they knew they would be penalized by Google if they wrote such things as text, but they knew they could hide the words within their images.

That is not true anymore because Google is now able to read images, which includes reading faces, objects, locations, and text.

Myth 4: You Can Reach The Number One Spot For A Certain Keyword

Not anymore you can’t.

If you type in any keyword to Google right now, a whole range of websites could appear. Unless you are typing in the name of something specific, such as McDonalds, you cannot be sure what will appear at the top of the Google search engine results.

Yesterday, if you typed in “Drink,” you might have seen an article about binge drinking, and if you do it today, you might see a blog post about energy drink sales.

Myth 5: Link Building Is Dead

Link building is more alive than ever, and it is more productive than ever.

We have finally seen the last of link farms and cheap article websites. Link building has great benefits because it draws traffic and attention to your website. The more traffic and attention your website receives, then the higher Google ranks it up the search engine results.

Google even has a way of figuring out if you own a bunch of the websites that you are linking to your website, so you can’t just buy 60 websites and link to your yourself.

Myth 6: People With Smaller Budgets Fare Just As Well As Those With Big Budgets

We used to say that SEO and Google leveled the playing field so that the small-time operator could appear next to big companies. That is not the case anymore.

"It is the companies that have the highest budgets…that dominate…Google."

Now, it is the companies that have the highest budgets and the biggest SEO departments that dominate the Google search engine results.

The worst offender is Amazon because it appears just about everywhere whenever somebody is looking to buy something.

Myth 7: Different Pages Should Have Different Keywords

This myth was spread because of things such as Yoast. There is a Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress, and it highlights if you have used the same focus keyword in your other posts. It makes it appear to be a bad thing, which is why people think that their different website pages should have different focus keywords.

This is not the case, Google couldn’t care less.

They are not judging your web pages on your focus keyword. Your focus keyword is only a small consideration when ranking your website. For example, if your website is all about fixing debt problems, then it stands to reason that your focus keyword is going to be “Debt reduction” for more than one of your pages.

Myth 8: You Need Search Engine Optimization Companies That Can Guarantee A Number One Ranking

SEO companies that promise to get you to the top spot are lying to you.

Nobody can guarantee you will get to the top. Even the people who work at Google cannot guarantee it.

If you find a good SEO company, then they may be able to make a regular and consistent effort to keep your website popular on Google, but an SEO company or some sort of outsourced SEO service is not required unless you are working in a very competitive industry where you have very little presence on the Google search engine results.

Myth 9: The Best Links Are From .Edu And .Gov Sites

It is just not true.

"Do not believe the rumors that the best links also come from news websites because that is bull honkey."

Some people think that these websites count as authority websites, but they are treated like most other websites to the point where they are often ranked very poorly because the web masters are not optimizing them. Do not believe the rumors that the best links also come from news websites because that is bull honkey.

Even if it were true, you have to remember that news items are the most disposable web pages on the Internet (besides social media posts), which means your links from them are going to have value for a few days at the most. It is not worth the effort of trying to get your links embedded into news articles.

Myth 10: Linking Out Helps You Rank

This was quite a popular myth for a while, but it doesn’t seem to have any truth behind it.

There are still people who add several links to their posts with the hopes that it improves their search engine results, but it doesn’t. One can only imagine that the person who set this rumor off was actually trying to create a world where people gave away backlinks more freely.

How Are You Supposed To Know What Is Right Or Wrong?

Only experience will tell you what is right and wrong.

As you continue to update and maintain your website, you will do things that have a positive and/or a negative effect on your website. You will be able to see how much traffic you gained or lost from Google, and you will be able to see how much of it converted. You can see these sorts of metrics with Google Analytics, which is a free traffic tracking service.

Over time, you will learn how to build on the things that work and how to avoid the things that do not work. Remember that it is just as much about getting people to convert as it is about getting people to your website. Un-targeted traffic is unlikely to convert, (aka subscribe/return/buy).

Conclusion

SEO is ever-changing, and over time, former truths become myths, and best practices become spammy and blackhat. If we’re not up to date, it’s easy to have a lot of misconceptions about what works and what doesn’t. Fortunately, there are a ton of great resources out there that we can use to brush up on what’s current in the world of SEO.

Do you know of any other SEO myths that keep site owners from increasing organic traffic and rankings? Please share with us by mentioning us on @XiMnetMY.